Medical Economics' top 10 Facebook stories of 2013

With so many changes in healthcare this year, it is no surprise that our top 10 Facebook stories range from medical schools to marijuana. Many of our readers are interested in how medical schools value primary care, while technology-based stories continue to peak interests.

Here’s a list of the top stories featured on Facebook in 2013:

1.  Does Sanjay Gupta’s support of medical marijuana really signify a turning point in the debate? (August 2013)

CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, MD's very public transformation into a proponent of medical marijuana had at least one pundit speculating that the U.S. has arrived at a "tipping point" in which the American is open to legalizing some drugs that had generally been thought of as illicit.

2.  The 20 worst residency programs for producing primary care physicians (July 2013)

The list of the bottom producers of primary care graduates includes some of the most prestigious and highly regarded hospitals in the nation, including Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins.

3.  The top 100 EHR companies (October 2013)

In an effort to help physicians make purchasing decisions, Medical Economics unveiled an exclusive report on the top 100 electronic health record (EHR) systems to examine key metrics, including revenue, certification, whether it has met MU2 certification requirements for complete EHRs or modules, and provides Web addresses for additional information.

4.  20 family doctors to follow on Twitter (February 2013)

Here is Medical Economics’ completely subjective list of 20 insightful, interesting and active family doctors on Twitter, in no particular order.

5.  UnitedHealth cuts thousands of physicians from network (November 2013)

Physicians’ relationships with insurance companies are becoming even more strained during Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation. UnitedHealth Group is one of the first insurance companies to drop thousands of physicians from their network.

6.  7 TED talks to revive your medical practice (August 2013)

John Principe, MD’s TED Talk is one of hundreds uplifting and problem-solving lectures; many made for and by healthcare professionals. Here are seven TED Talks that might help you revitalize your practice.

7.  How medical schools consistently cover up their primary care failures (May 2013)

The U.S. educational system is doing a woefully inadequate job of producing enough primary care physicians to satisfy future demand, but you'd never guess that if you read the media reports that come out around Match Day.

8.  AMA, medical societies fight mass physician cancellations to Medicare Advantage plans (November 2013)

Medical groups are fighting back following mass cancellations of physicians in Medicare Advantage Plans in at least 11 states.

9.  Physicians’ top 5 most-used medical apps for smartphones and tablets (June 2013)

There's little doubt that lots of physicians are using medical apps on their smartphones and tablets, but doctors seem less-than-thrilled with those apps. Here are lists of physicians' most-used medical apps on smartphones and tablets.

10.  Top 20 medical institutions ranked by percentage of primary care graduates (June 2013)

U.S. medical institutions need to do a much better job of churning out primary care physicians for many reasons - not the least of which is that the American public funds graduate medical education (GME) with about $13 billion in taxpayer money each year. But some medical institutions are doing the job.